Everywhere
by emberfire411
Summary: “No Andy, its just…sometimes I wonder if I chose the right guy.” Bloom spills her guts to Andy one night at the Fruity Music Bar, admitting how Baltor seems to be everywhere to her. But who's listening? Series 4 Sparxshipping One-shot. Full summary inside


**Ok, I know I should be working on Unexpected, but this idea came to me as I was messing with iTunes and found my old collection of Michelle Branch songs. I was listening to **_**Everywhere**_**, and this idea hit me smack in the face, and I couldn't let it pass. So the story takes place in Season 4, before Nabu dies but after Roxy gets her powers. And as for the rest…I'm sure you'll get it.**

**Full Summary: Season 4 fic. Even a year after Baltor's defeat, Bloom's still having dreams about him. She finally spills her guts to Andy one night at the Fruity Music Bar, admitting how Baltor seems to be everywhere to her. Andy helps her sort out her feelings, but who's listening to them? Sparxshipping, one-shot songfic based on Michelle Branch's song Everywhere.**

**Disclaimer: Never owned Winx Club, and I most likely never will**

Everywhere

I woke up with a small scream. I forced myself to take a few deep breaths to calm down, grateful that in the new apartment, we all had separate rooms. I love Flora, but she would have already been up asking what had happened. I reached out to grab my water bottle that was resting on the nightstand. I took a long gulp, the cold water running down my throat and waking my sense up a little.

Another nightmare about Baltor.

Well, not a nightmare exactly; I just couldn't stop thinking about him. It had been happening for at least half a year, I realized with a small smile. At first any thoughts had been about how to beat him. Sure, he was good looking, but I had had Sky, and he had been enough…

Right?

I sighed and tossed myself back against the pillows on my bed. I hated when my mind went in circles like this, thinking one thing but then hitting another. Sure Baltor was good looking (okay fine, drop dead _gorgeous_, but that's not the point), but he had been the enemy. And it's not like he ever cared about me. Except the fact he saved my life on Tides...and wouldn't fight me when I woke up…even after I tried to pick a fight…. Great, I was doing it again.

I could still remember the last time I'd seen him, the deal he'd offered me. To be honest, the only reason I'd said no was because I thought it was a lie. But yet, I'd found my father trapped in stone within the realm of Obsidian, and my mother's essence imprisoned in the sword he had. So Baltor hadn't lied. Which meant now looking back, I totally wanted to take that deal. But Baltor was still the enemy…and not to mention dead so…the circle goes on and on.

I sighed again; there was no point in going on about it now. I shut my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Even though I knew what figure was waiting to haunt my dreams.

* * *

"Bloom? Hello, anyone in there?" Andy snapped my out of my dazed state at the Fruity Music Bar the next day...or night, I guess. I had slept most of the day, considering I hadn't been able to get back to sleep for longer than an hour last night. Having nothing better to do, I came out to the Fruity Music Bar. I hadn't been to the All-Night Friday Summer Bash in a while now. The place was packed, as usual.

"Oh, what? Sorry, Andy, what did you say?"

He rolled his eyes, leaning his guitar against the table I was sitting at. "All right, what's up?" he asked, taking a seat across the table.

Reason number one Andy and I broke up; Andy is way more like an overprotective older brother sometimes than a friend. I sighed, swirling the straw in my strawberry smoothie almost automatically. "Did you know when we went out we'd end up breaking up?"

Andy looked a little surprised. "Where'd that come from?"

"Just around."

He knew I was lying to him, I could tell by the skeptic look on his face. But he still answered; "Oh I don't know Bloom. I guess so…I mean I knew we probably wouldn't run off and get married in Vegas or something," I smiled lightly at his attempted humor, "But I never thought of it, you know? Live in the now, worry about the future later."

I nodded. "Did you ever think I was the wrong girl later on?"

"Is this some weird chick logic that's going to come back to haunt me?"

"No, it's just…sometimes I wonder if I chose the right guy." I swear if all the Specialists were working here and it wasn't eleven at night, I wouldn't be having this conversation with him.

Now he looked a little confused. "You're trying to choose between blondie and another guy?"

I gave him a look. I had to admit, he'd called Sky worse, especially after the Eraklyon Millennium Ball incident (ironic how that itself led back to Baltor). "Yes, ok, I'm trying to decide."

Andy shrugged. "Did you talk to the other guy about it?"

"Um…the other guy is kind of…unavailable at the moment. But back to my question, did you think I was the wrong girl?"

"Near the end, a little. I knew I always wanted you around as a friend, Bloom, but I knew that the whole 'us' thing wasn't going to work out. Look," he waved back to his own questions, "Are you sure you can't talk to him? I know Sky won't listen to you, but maybe this other guy will. Where is he? What's so special about him?"

I gave something between a sigh and a laugh in response, laying my head on my hands. "Nowhere, nothing. Everywhere, everything. It's hard to tell sometimes."

_Now Andy really looked like he thought I was crazy. "You said no chick logic."_

"I'm sorry. It's just confusing."

"Let me guess; this guy is from the magic dimension or something, and that's why it's so complicated, right?"

Sometimes it was hard to remember that Andy knew I was a fairy. But with the news reports, it was impossible not to know. Everyone on Earth must know about us… "Yeah, the guy's a wizard."

"Name?"

"Baltor," I said after some hesitation.

"Totally not an Earth name," he muttered before addressing me fully, "Ok, so let's start this simple. Why do you like him?"

To me, I felt like he was asking why I like air. I really didn't need a justifiable reason, it was obvious. I couldn't live without it. I knew I could live without Baltor; heck, I'd been doing it for a while, but not without difficulties. Remembering Andy was expecting an answer, I said, "He's just…kind of perfect. To me at least, I know my friends would use some very different words to describe him. But it just kind of seems crazy that I think of him like that. And of course the further I go with my life the further behind he gets, like he wasn't real. And it's killing me. And I don't know if this helps, but he kind of saved my life."

The surprise was back. "He saved your life?"

"Yeah. He kept me from drowning. He made sure I was ok, wouldn't let me fight him when I tried to pick a fight…" I trailed off, remembering I was probably getting a little too complicated for Andy.

He was nodding. "Ok, so saving your life is a plus, last I checked. What about Sky?"

"Sky's a great friend." I was saying almost automatically, "We've both had each others backs ever since I met him. I don't know what would have happened in Magix if he wasn't around."

"Still feel like that now?" Andy seemed to already be getting my feelings on the topic.

"Not really," I admitted, "Now it's more like…we're friends, and that's it. I used to love him, but now…"

Andy gave me a knowing bob of his head, his eyes temporarily darting behind me to look at something before resting on me again. It seemed like he was writing this down in his head. "So we both get blondie's out, right?"

I took a sip of my smoothie, which was slightly warm because of the humidity. "I guess…"

"There you go," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes like a proud college professor, "Case closed."

I cringed a little. "Not really," Andy opened his right eye. "Did I mention Baltor's kind of…dead?"

The other eye snapped opened in shock. It took Andy about five seconds to say, "Um…I believe you left out that tiny little detail…"

I groaned, letting my head drop onto my arms, resting on the table. "I'm screwed. I can't tell Sky…half the magical universe expects me to take over Eraklyon as queen with him…"

"Queen? How did…why…never mind," Andy finally gave up, "Okay, so let's say there's some magical spell that can bring Baltor back from the dead; is there?"

"Last I knew, he was trapped in Obsidian because – sorry I'm getting so techie on you – but I kind of extinguished his power, which sent him back to the darkness there."

"So you killed him?"

"In a way, yes. But now, while the whole dimensions thrilled about it, I'm having a pity party."

Andy stared at me for a second. "I'm guessing you left out another detail about the guy, Bloom."

I smiled sheepishly. "He's a convict who almost enslaved the whole magical universe?"

He rolled his eyes. "You are really good at getting into trouble, you know that?"

"I've been told."

"Ok, so why on earth would you fall for him?"

I gave a sigh of frustration. "I don't know, Andy. It's just, with Sparx – I told you the basics about Sparx, right?" he nodded, so I continued, "Well, with Sparx, I finally got it though my head that Baltor was technically a survivor of Sparx, too. And…I wasn't alone anymore."

"Corny much?"

"Andy!"

"Sorry, please continue."

I rolled my eyes now. "But it was…I don't know…I wasn't as scared of my past. I knew there was no way Baltor would ever help me, but it was better. I can't explain it."

"I can." I looked at him is surprise. "Isn't it easy? You're in love with the guy!"

"What part of dead do you not get?"

"Dead-shmed," he waved off, his eyes darting back behind me again, "All I know Bloom, is that most criminal sentences come with loopholes. You go to jail for something, you get out on good behavior. You end up in a jail cell; you use dental floss to break the bars. You're sentenced to death, you escape through the air vents. Loopholes. There's got to be a way he's alive."

I couldn't begin to describe how much I'd looked for loopholes. I'd spent seven hours solid in Alfea's magic library, just looking. However, all I said was, "Andy, I've tried. Really I have. But after I rescued my parents from Obsidian – I'll explain later," I said before he could question me, "the dimension itself kind of…collapsed. It sealed itself off from the universe. There's no way back."

"Really?" he looked skeptical, "Nothing at all?"

"I spent more hours reading for loopholes to get him out longer than I had in my entire life. There's _nothing_. I mean Andy I…Andy? Hello?" I reached out and hit his cheek lightly to bring him back to reality. He jerked in surprise.

"Sorry," he apologized, "I'm just…Bloom, I think a friend of yours is here. He's been leaning against the back pillar staring at you for the last five minutes."

"What?" I twisted around to see, narrowing my eyes to try and look through the crowd. There was a slight shift, and I suddenly saw the guy he was talking about.

And I gasped.

I blinked at least seven times, my jaw hanging open a little. My eyes were obviously going out on me. Because the guy Andy was talking about looked like Baltor, the guy was dressed like Baltor (with a few altercations so he blended in on Earth: he had jeans and a blue shirt over his coat, no old fashioned ruffles or anything. And the coat only reached his waist.), and hell, the guy even had the same smirk as Baltor; the one that annoyed me to death but also made my knees a little weak. But there was no way. There was just no way…

He caught me staring and his smirk widened. Separating from the pillar, he walked over to where Andy and I were sitting.

"Is he a friend?" Andy asked me. "From school or something?"

"I…I honestly think I'm just going crazy," I said as he approached.

Baltor still had the smirk on his face as he walked up to us. "You going to close that, Bloom?" he asked with a chuckle.

That was Baltor all right. Taking his advice, I finally got my jaw muscles to close. However, that only led to stammering. "How are…why are…how can you even…?"

"Stammering," Andy observed with slight sarcasm, "Either you're some long lost relative from half way around the world or you're the infamous Baltor I've been hearing about."

"I'd hope the second one," Baltor replied with an equal amount of amusement, "And I was also hoping," he continued, turning his gaze back to me, "That I could talk to you for a minute."

"I'm out," Andy said, standing and grabbing his guitar in a single movement, "I need to find Mark and Ryo anyway. Nice meeting you, Baltor. And Bloom," I turned to him, and he gave me a quick wink. "See you later." He turned and disappeared into the crowd, leaving Baltor and I.

A million ideas of what to ask popped into my head. However, all I could conjure up was; "You heard all that, didn't you?"

Baltor laughed; that deep, velvet laugh I hadn't realized I'd missed until I heard it again. "You could say that," he said, and I felt his hand slipping into mine, "Come on, I want to talk to you."

'_It's probably a trap. He's tricking you'_, my brain immediately wacked out. But honestly, I was so shocked; I stood up and let him lead me away from the noise.

* * *

"This is probably the quietest I've seen you," Baltor remarked as we reached the end of the closed patio area he'd taken me to.

"It's not often people I think are dead make shocking reappearances in my home town. Sorry I'm a disappointment."

He shook his head, smiling lightly. "There's my girl."

His girl? As much as I loved the sound of it, the comment still caused the logical part of brain to kick into gear. I pulled my hand out of his grasp. "Is there any particular reason you're not dead, or am I just finally going insane?"

"Oh no, I'm alive don't worry."

"See, I kind of don't remember that part."

"Did I say you were expected to?" he asked me with a raised eyebrow. "Look, after you freed Oritel and Miriam – by the way, I'll take the 'you were right' another time – the place did collapse."

"Which should have sealed you off."

"Should have. But in the last possible moment, I slipped out."

"What about the Dragonfire connection? I should have been able to sense you."

"A good magician never reveals his secrets."

"Your secrets are pretty damn annoying," I snapped before going back to processing what he said before. "So you came here?"

"To the only place I knew no one would recognize me. And imagine my surprise when a few particular news stories started popping up about these six fairies. I came here to Gardenia a few weeks ago just to be sure, even though I had a pretty good idea."

"So the past few weeks…you knew everything? You've known I was here and didn't do anything?"

"Two explanations," he said before I could go further, "My spells are gone, remember? I'm down to the basics, which are unbearably pathetic," he added more in a mutter, "And second, I had no idea I was so…missed." Baltor ginned at me.

"You obviously have a couple of advance sense spells from the Cloudtower archives. You eavesdropped on Andy and me from at least twenty feet, didn't you?"

"That's one word to use."

I looked at him for a minute, wanting to hit him with a dragon arrow and wanting to throw my arms around him. I wondered for a millisecond if it would be possible to do both. "How much did you hear?"

"Oh I heard quite a bit." He said with a knowing smirk.

I immediately blushed and turned away from him, looking up at the stars. "So go ahead. Tell me how stupid and wrong I am."

I heard him sigh as though he were shocked and amused at me. I heard the footsteps of his boots as he walked behind me. "You may be one of the smartest and most clueless people I've ever met, you know that?"

"Baltor, I know you. You laugh at weakness…or use it against people; I wasn't too grateful about being turned into an ice sculpture in Cloudtower."

"I would have freed you eventually," he waved off before I felt a section of my hair being lifted. I could tell from the pressure that Baltor was combing his fingers trough it. "But that's not the point. Let me ask you something; when you meant nightmares…"

One thing caught. "I never told Andy I was having nightmares."

Baltor's hand stopped. He sighed and kept going. "All right, fine."

"So you've been spying on me?"

"A bit. Plus the fact I got a jolt at about three am last night as a reaction from your last nightmare."

"You can feel it when I'm scared?" I knew that by now I shouldn't be surprised at anything Baltor could conjure up, but he never seized to amaze me.

"Well," he dropped the part of my hair and picked up another, "In a way it's just a chain reaction. If an emotion's strong enough, it'll transfer and I can use it almost like a positioning device. But, yes, in certain cases I can sense your emotions."

"But why me?" I asked before realizing that was about the stupidest question ever. We were the only survivors of Sparx for eighteen years; of course our powers would be connected. "Never mind the last questions. So you used the fear from my dreams to track me?"

"The fear, the misery, the everything thing else."

I shut my eyes tightly. "You mean the just plain liking you. Getting back to that…"

Baltor sighed, "You still don't get it, do you?"

"Get what? You're an amazing wizard and I'm just a stupid, naïve girl who's never gonna know better?"

"My dear, you're a stupid, naïve girl who's not seeing the bigger picture."

"Picture? Look," I spun to face him, "Just admit you think –"

Before I could get another word out, Baltor wrapped his arms around my waist, pulled me close, and kissed me.

Somehow I was starting to think this was all a crazy dream. But even if it was a dream, I might as well make the most of it. I slowly reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, keeping myself as close as I could to him.

The way Baltor kissed me made me feel like the world had vanished from under me, his arms the only thing keeping me up. His lips were soft and sweet, and his grip on me was protective, like he didn't want me going anywhere either. He ran his tongue over my bottom lip as he stared running one of his hands up my back to mess with my hair again. After a second, I let him deepen the kiss.

Finally, about a minute later, I pulled back to get some decent air. "I swear I'm going to kill you if you ever disappear like that again."

Baltor laughed and pulled me close to him, letting my head rest on his shoulder as I breathed in the comforting scent of his jacket. "Deal."

"So am I starting to get the bigger picture?"

"Finally, yes."

We were silent for a moment. "You know," I finally said, "If you heard what Andy and I were talking about, you should know that this is going to be hard. Sky expects me to take over Eraklyon with him and you can't go back to the magical dimension…without you know, causing a ton of panic. What are we going to do?"

I felt him shrug. "Live in the now, worry about the future later." He quoted Andy with a little bit of sarcasm "Besides," Baltor continued, leaning his head down to whisper in my ear, "Maybe I missed you a little bit too."

"Sure," I scoffed, "and you had dreams?"

He shrugged again. "Maybe I did," he said, his voice light.

"And maybe I seemed everywhere to you too, right?"

"I don't know."

"And maybe with me your not alone."

He put his hand under my chin and lifted my face to his, his breath caressing my face "I'll give you that one."

I couldn't help but grin. "I just might love you, Baltor."

He grinned as I rested my head on his shoulder again. "You Earth kids and romance movies."

"Is that a compliment or insult?"

"You can take it as a compliment for now," he said, pressing his lips to my cheek, "But only because I might love you, too."

* * *

**Is that not the most over used, blockbuster romance movie ending **_**ever**_**? Oh well, I still put it in there. And I love Andy to death, and somehow I wanted to include the idea that he and Bloom have kind of a girl-guy best friend type relationship. Reviews are appreciated, so is criticism, but flaming is really not. Gracias guys!**

**ember**


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